Or not. 
https://swimswam.com/paltrinieri-wins-mens-10k-wilimovsky-crowned-national-champion-in-miami/
And Wilmovsky (sp?) has said in multiple interviews that he almost never trains in anything other than a pool.
I wonder how much time he spends debating whether or not his drills are in fact drills?
I would venture to guess that most OWS swimmers swim in pool the majority of the time. That doesn’t mean there isn’t something to OWS. Some swimmers swim much better in OWS than the pool, some swim much worse, some are neutral. Guy is fastest guy in the pool at 1500, I would say that is pretty good credentials to swim a 10K open water race but still doesn’t tell us much about his ability to swim in OWS vs not. Would like to see someones analysis though with some deltas and expected pool times to open water times.
Setting aside pack swimming and the ability to deal with chop. I’ve always assumed the difference is peoples ability to swim straight and site.
It’s an easy test… In the pool, swim with your eyes closed whenever your face is in the water. Only site so you know where the wall is. See how many times your hands hit the lane.
Just make sure you have the lane to yourself.
Great stuff!
He seems to have a very high stoke rate in the pool which transitions nicely into OW.
He did a 14’38 in 1500m a few weeks ago in the Italian Nationals so lets hope he takes the WR from Sun Yang in Worlds or in Tokyo.
This comes up in running with Cross-Country.
But running is running, and the absolute best runners, regardless of the type of footing or terrain always rise to the top. We saw this at the recent World XC Championships in Denmark.
No surprise that the best long-distance swimmer in the world in the pool over 1500m is ALSO the best in open water.